OH MY GOODNESS - "CHRISTMAS" WAS GREAT!!

 WOW!!  That is all I can say ... WOW!!!

My hubby and daughter went all out for me this year ...

Daughter found me a wonderful Tea set = pot and cups WITH saucers! at a local thrift store -- don't judge us, we love a good Thrift (last year she found a FULL tea set, pot, creamer, sugarer, tea cups, saucers for $10!!!!!)

So now I have a tea setting for 4 people ... I've never had that - just the pot, creamer, sugar pot - I absolutely love it 

Hubby and daughter went to WalMart and she talked him into the Ultimate gift ...   for me at least ... 

For the last 2 years I've been using my youngest son's Instant Pot at the resort (Silver Bay Sunset Get=a=way in Luck, WI ... on lovely Bone Lake .... sorry, shameless plug) ... and I fell in love with it

It does everything - even cooks PASTA in 4 minutes, plus pressuring time - and its PERFECT, except the size - I found the 6 quart model to be a little small for me - we feed more than 3 people more than 1/2 the time and they are all adults with BIG appetites 

Well - not sure which was listening, but I got an **8 QUART** Instant Pot!!!

Only have 3 issues - but 2 are easy to fix:

~ it did NOT come with a rack for the bottom - you don't want food sitting on the bottom of the pot because it could scorch

~ Only 1 gasket, and Wal*Mart didn't sell any replacements for this size

These two will be easy to fix - I have a "UFO" steamer which I can use or a few other ways that I've lerned over the years ... and I'm hoping to be able to find another gasket on Amazon, maybe even QVC if necessary (they sell 8-qts too)

the last issue is a bit tougher to solve - that's the inner pot itself.  It is Non-Stick coated == which I'm sure is nice, and I will be able to use it without any problems ... but in the future I can see the non-stick coating will wear off ... but hopefully not for a looooooong time!

I will be doing a separate post on hints & tips I've learned over the last couple years.

Now I need to find room in my kitchen for one more thing!

I have a feeling my slow cookers will have to be put away ... but where do I put those??